Ok, I went out today and I bought a 15 watt soldering iron, a desoldering bulb, and light duty rosin-core solder (.032 dia., 2.5 oz, 60/40). I'm gonna practice on old computer chips and toys, and I'll start on my radio because it's still under warranty.

Did I buy the right type of soldering gun and solder for the job, or is a different type recommended?

Also, I was looking at the blue led bulbs at the store, and I noticed that they had really long prongs on the end of them. Can I cut them off a little, or should I just melt them down into the solder?

Any advice would be helpful, because I think I'm gonna fuck things up.

The "prongs" on the LED's will not melt at the temperature for soldering. You can trim them down to the right size, just don't cut off too much.

Usually when soldering on a circuit board, there is a heat sink (little silver or copper circle) around the connection point. The idea is to put the soldering iron on the heat sink and touch the solder to the heat sink also. Don't put the solder directly on the iron. When the heat sink gets hot enough the solder will melt. Then stick the wire you're soldering into the bead of melted solder, remove the iron, and the solder freezes and you have a solid connection. Select the tip for the soldering iron such that it's small enough to touch only what you want to touch, but big enough to heat up the heat sink fairly quickly.

Other people may have better advice, as I have only done limited soldering work.

There is also such a thing as solder paste, which is much easier to use. Rather than trying to get the solder to melt in the right location at the same time you have the wire in place, you can sqeeze some paste at the connection point, and the paste helps hold the connection in place. Then you just heat the connection to make the solder flow (and the paste part melts away). If I remember correctly, I think when I used the solder paste for putting tiny little surface-mount chips on a circuit board, all it took was a hot-air gun to melt the solder paste.

i dont like the fact that you got a 15 watt iron. 25 to 40 watt(adjustable)would be better!make sure the tip of the iron is clean always,get a wet sponge and pass the tip of the iron over it before soldering to clean all the black stuff that is going to accumulate on it.it depends on what you are soldering,you dont want to keep the tip to long on the wire just long enough for the solder to fully melt.if you are soldering sensitive stuff,its a good idea to break the surface a little with a fine grit sand paper that way the solder hold quickly after it melts (a soon as it melts lift the iron away and simultaneously blow air on the spot where the solder melted)and less heat will be transferd to what you are soldering.ps if you want good practice with soldering,get some old speakers and practice desoldering/soldering the wire leads that go down into the cone.cut and practice resoldering.some of them are tough because they are not completely metal,if you can handle those without burnig or cold soldering them you can hold your own against most regular wires etc.! good luck!

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These are all good tips, however, I do not personally recommend that you blow on the solder to cool it, it will cool and harden on it's own very quickly. If you do blow on it, the result will be a "cold solder joint" which means reduced current flow through the connection. A correctly soldered joint should appear shiny and reflective and slightly concaved. I also recommend that you pick up some "flux/solder paste". Apply this flux to the area that you want to solder, and wipe it clean when finished. See picture below.

i dont like the fact that you got a 15 watt iron. 25 to 40 watt(adjustable)would be better!make sure the tip of the iron is clean always,get a wet sponge and pass the tip of the iron over it before soldering to clean all the black stuff that is going to accumulate on it.it depends on what you are soldering,you dont want to keep the tip to long on the wire just long enough for the solder to fully melt.if you are soldering sensitive stuff,its a good idea to break the surface a little with a fine grit sand paper that way the solder hold quickly after it melts (a soon as it melts lift the iron away and simultaneously blow air on the spot where the solder melted)and less heat will be transferd to what you are soldering.ps if you want good practice with soldering,get some old speakers and practice desoldering/soldering the wire leads that go down into the cone.cut and practice resoldering.some of them are tough because they are not completely metal,if you can handle those without burnig or cold soldering them you can hold your own against most regular wires etc.! good luck!

Thanks for the info. I'll exchange the iron today, but I only saw a 15 to 30 adjustable iron. The other ones were unadjustable...15, 25, 30, 40 something, and a soldering gun with 100 watts. I think I'll get the 15-30 adjustable if you think that's okay.

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